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Moscow offers lesson on press freedom

Moscow - Two hours into a visit with journalists gathered here last month, I got a stark lesson in the sad state of Russian press freedom and how good we have it at home.

The prominent editor of an independent Russian newspaper known for investigative work explained that his reporters resort to buying pirated government data on the street.

They often avoid official government channels because of lengthy waits for information.

But they also fear for their own safety if they make a formal request for information under Russian law, which gives the government at least a week to respond.

"That's the most dangerous time," said Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta. "That's when people die."

Yes, he meant that reporters and editors die. Four from Novaya Gazeta alone in recent years. And a human rights attorney associated with the paper was gunned down last year on a Moscow street after a news conference.

My education began at a weekend journalism conference for local and regional media based outside the capital city - outlets owned independently, not by the state. Thanks to Iceland's volcanic ash, my scheduled stopover turned into a nine-day stay in this world-class, notoriously expensive metropolis.

I heard disturbing stories of press intimidation, as well as some isolated successes.

The New Eurasia Foundation invited me here to share tales of covering local government corruption in Milwaukee. The foundation is an American-Russian effort to develop civil society in Russia. The conference site was the headquarters of RIA Novosti, a major state-owned Russian news agency. With help from an interpreter, I explained how we dig up stories that often lead to reforms.

Russian journalists, by contrast, are used to inaction and a stone wall of silence when they expose problems. After I spoke, they erupted with questions: Did the government cooperate? Do reporters feel safe? How can you live side by side with officials you call to account? How many papers do this kind of work? How much does it cost?

I struggled at times to explain press freedom in the United States. In the end, I likely learned more from them than they did from me.

Pressure, direct and indirect, from government officials or business figures takes many forms in Russia, I learned. Threatening phone calls. The closing of distribution outlets. Calls to boycott a paper. Unleashing a pit bull on a reporter.

I paid a visit to a weekly paper in suburban Zhukovsky, where a staff of young reporters uniformly complained about denial of their requests for government information. In between cigarette breaks, they explained their fledgling strategy to fight back in the courts, a course that other reporters say can sometimes bear fruit, but only after long delays.

Their paper got involved in a controversy over a plan to build a road through a forested part of town. When the mayor produced a pro-road petition signed by townsfolk, the paper printed all the signatures, prompting many residents to write in saying their handwriting had been forged.

It was a modest sign of fight as Russians struggle for freedom.

Some of the protests are symbolic, almost quaint.

Muscovites, for example, are fed up with government bigwigs skirting traffic jams by placing flashing blue lights atop their vehicles. So citizens have taken to taping blue cups to their car roofs and slowing down in front of official cars. A radio talk show host led the protest.

Reality for Russian reporters means a readership that is still highly skeptical that truth-telling can triumph over propaganda. Pay is low for journalists, and talent is in short supply. Newspaper owners find it tough competing for ads against state-owned outlets, and ethical dilemmas abound for publishers under pressure to slant coverage.

Reporters question taking risks when stories are unlikely to have any impact.

Overall, progress toward true press freedom is slow. In the latest World Press Freedom index, Russia still ranked near the bottom at 153; the U.S. ranked 20th.

Editors and reporters practice self-censorship amid political pressure, reader disinterest and government silence, said Anna Koshman, executive director of the Alliance of Independent Regional Publishers of Russia. "There's a lack of trust that somebody can help and print the truth," she said.

Still, the number of alternatives to state-owned media continues to grow, many with interactive Web sites.

A limited amount of in-depth investigative work gets done; a recent award-winning story, for example, revealed nepotism and conflicts of interest in the private ownership of former state-owned utility companies.

Maria Eismont, a former war correspondent, trains and advises regional journalists. She runs the independent media program at the New Eurasia Foundation, with partial funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Press freedom, she said, ultimately depends less on ownership or financial viability than on an intangible factor. "It's entirely in the head of the editor and leading journalists," Eismont said. "If they want to dare, they dare."

On the 10-hour flight to Moscow, I had drawn up remarks noting that American readers and reporters often take for granted the press freedoms we enjoy.